There is a LOT of design activity in health monitoring today (we saw a ton of it on our Drive for Innovation around the country). But the challenge seems to me (still) that the digitization of records keeping is still the bottleneck to technology adoption.
We're all concerned about security. I get that. But I'm also increasingly ticked off when I have to fill out the same triplicate forms at a doctor's office using a pen. It's insane.
In any case, semiconductor and systems companies deserve big kudos for leading this charge.

Hello Dr DSP,
Thanks for the comment! You bring up a good point. However, the stringent certification and testing process is a challenge, but a necessary one. Most of the medical specifications are system level relating to patient safety. This would include the PCB, the device enclosure, and all other components within the full medical system. Getting a chip level certification to IEC60601-1 or one of the UL medical body standards is not common and would not necessarily guarantee a medical certification in the end system.
Dwight Byrd, TI Precision Data Converter Marketing Manager

One of the challenges for these designs is usually passing special certification tests or health standards. If the chip level device can be passed and then any instruments built using it passed 'automatically' or even just easier that would be a big help. Any possibility of this?

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